CUH Logo

Mobile menu open

Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub

A specialist Surgical Hub has opened at Addenbrooke's Hospital to help cut waiting lists for routine orthopaedic operations – such as knee and hip replacements – and create a new surgical centre of excellence.

Person walking towards the patient and visitor entrance sign for Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub.
Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub opened in November 2023

A brand new Surgical Hub, which sits slightly apart from the main hospital, has started treating patients needing hip and knee replacements. Many of these patients have been waiting many months or years for procedures.

This protected orthopaedic facility, which provides 40 additional beds and three state-of-the-art operating theatres, will operate all year round, and will not be affected by pressures in other parts of the hospital.

Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub explained by Fred Robinson, Clinical Lead

Link: https://youtu.be/kbEJqpl99aA

Video transcript

This is a concept that we came up with about 15 years ago, and what we're trying to do orthopaedically is get people back to normal life, improve their movement, get their mobility back and very importantly, remove their pain.

During COVID, there's been a huge increase in the number of patients waiting surgical treatment, and that's particularly hit orthopaedics.

This isn't just going to do hip replacement and knee replacement, we're doing all aspects of orthopaedic surgery, and our spinal colleagues from neurosurgery are going to come and do some spinal surgery as well.

So it’s going to allow us to treat patients throughout the year, which is very exciting.

We have a workstation on wheels.

We also have handheld devices which the nurses can carry around.

We can scan patients’ wristbands, ensuring that we are administering drugs to the right patient at the right time.

Some workstations are wall mounted in the corridors, so you can get enough people

around the devices to have a good discussion around the patient without being in the patient's room.

There's a pre-admission area where you'll see the anaesthetist surgeon on the morning of surgery.

We're obviously sitting in one of the three theaters which are the next section through.

Then got a recovery area with four beds for slightly sicker patients, an enhanced recovery area.

Then there's a corridor that goes up, and there you’ve got physiotherapy, occupational therapy and radiology, so you can get your X-rays, and then coming back down we've got 40 beds, in two wards, each with individual cubicles.

And at the end of that you've got a discharge lounge and then patients, maybe even as soon as the day of surgery, day after surgery, will leave the hub and go home.

The new hub has allowed us to bring forward some really innovative energy efficiency

measures. We've installed a set of heat pumps on the roof, and they're connected to solar panels that provide renewable energy for part of the time to those heat pumps.

In the summer, there’s a very good chance that that building will be running entirely, for its heating and its cooling from energy from the sun.

The new facilities will allow us to treat many more people, increasing our orthopaedic capacity by 20% to around 2,700 procedures a year.

This will make a huge difference for many hundreds of patients who have already waited a long time for their surgery, often living in pain and struggling to stay active.

Operating theatre - lights and operating table
The three state-of-the-art operating theatres will operate all year round.

Andrew McCaskie, is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at CUH, a professor of orthopaedic surgery at University of Cambridge and leading research and training for the new Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub. He said:

“The dedicated space and innovative care pathways within the Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub will make a huge difference for the many hundreds of patients who are waiting long periods of time for their surgery, often living in pain and struggling to stay active.

“In addition, the hub will help those with bone and joint disease more widely, by greatly facilitating our research and innovation into current and future treatments.”

With cutting-edge innovation and the dedication of staff, the NHS is working hard to ease current healthcare pressures and bring down waiting times for patients.

Dr Eddie Morris, medical director for the NHS in the east of England

The new surgical hub is part of a national scheme to deliver more than 50 new surgical hubs across England, providing a total of around 100 more operating theatres and 1,000 more beds.

In total it is estimated the new hubs will deliver almost two million extra routine operations to reduce waiting lists over the next three years, backed by £1.5 billion in government funding.

Work in the Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub

A large recruitment drive is underway with opportunities in a number of different roles, including theatre staff, registered nurses, newly qualified nurses and occupational therapists.

Nurse working at standing workstation in empty patient room in Movement Hub

Staff working in the Cambridge Movement Surgical Hub will have an opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge through working alongside specialist nursing and therapy teams, delivering life changing treatment for patients.

To find out more about these new roles, visit our recruitment website or call Recruitment Services on 01223 217038.

Find out more

Our plans for the future

Read about Addenbrooke's 3
Ariel shot of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus

This document was correct at the time of printing - 01-05-2024 23:03